I am having pain and swelling in my cheek after getting a tooth filled. What to do?

Question

Hi doctor,

I had a tooth filling approximately 10 hours ago and felt excruciating pain when the local anesthesia was injected. I experienced pain from my cheek all the way up to my temple. The dentist was very rushed and just told me that the pain and numbing sensation could last for up to two hours after the filling. The numbness went away everywhere except for in my cheek. I have been experiencing a throbbing pain and swelling in my cheek bone and my lower eye socket. I also have a slight fever. Is this something to be concerned? It should be noted that I have sublingual and submandibular nerve damage from a wisdom tooth extraction that I had two years ago.

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

You have mentioned that you regained sensation, which means the nerve was anesthetized properly and has reverted too. The numbness, pain, and swelling in your cheek might be due to accidental injection into the cheek muscles. I want you to check yourself if you can open and close your mouth normally as before. If not, then it is a muscle twitch, for which you have to do mouth exercises to come back to normal. But the other possibility for your pain might be the tooth itself, as local anesthesia is not given for a normal filling. Maybe the tooth itself is filled deep without pulp protection. Please attach an x-ray of the tooth which you got filled. I will be able to give you an elaborate answer and treatment once you revert with the additional information. The history of lingual and mandibular nerve damage is not relevant for this scenario because it is in the lower jaw.

I am having pain and swelling in my cheek after getting a tooth filled. What to do?

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